Sustainability alert: Unifi launches Our Ocean recycled fibers

Greensboro, North Carolina-based Unifi Inc. has launched a new sustainable product that it says enables customers and consumers to play a role in solving the problem of ocean plastic. To deal with the root cause of ocean plastic, Our Ocean fiber is made from bottles collected within 50 kilometers of coastlines in countries or areas that lack formal waste or recycling systems, the company says in a news release.

"Our Ocean is a premium collection of fiber and resin sourced from bottles at high risk of entering in the ocean," says Jay Hertwig, group vice president of global branded sales for Unifi. “We have long cared for our air, land and natural resources by transforming billions of plastic bottles into Repreve recycled fiber. With Our Ocean, we offer a unique opportunity for brands to tell an ocean-focused story.”

Each year, at least 8.8 million tons of plastics make their way into the ocean, which is the equivalent of dumping the contents of one garbage truck into the ocean every minute. In addition, at least 80 percent of plastic flows into the oceans from land, and at current rates, there will be more plastic by weight than fish by 2050, according to the United Kingdom-based Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

“Forward-thinking brands that want to take a stronger stand in addressing ocean pollution and want to make an even more specific statement about protecting the environment now have a new option,” Hertwig says.

Unilver launches ‘wrapper-less’ ice cream pack

London-based Unilever has launched the first “wrapper-less" ice cream pack for Solero Organic Peach, with 35 percent less plastic compared with the original Solero Organic pack with individual plastic wrappers. The trail is part of Unilver’s #GetPlasticWise five-point plastic plan, which aims to “rethink plastic” in the U.K.

Made from a specially designed polyethylene coated cardboard, the new box has built-in compartments, so the individual ice creams can be inserted without a plastic wrapper and the box can be widely recycled in the U.K., the company says in a news release.

Earlier this year Unilever launched its #GetPlasticWise campaign, a holistic approach to rethinking plastic. This launch reflects its commitment to ensure that globally all of its plastic packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025, and to using more recycled plastic content in its packaging. The initiative includes working with partners to educate consumers on how they can reduce plastic consumption.

The wrapper-less ice cream is being trialed at supermarket Ocado to “test the new packaging and gather consumer response.”

“If successful and the feedback from customers is positive, this innovative pack could reduce the amount of plastic we use in the future to package our ice creams,” says Noel Clarke, vice president of refreshment at Unilever.

A shareholder proposal at Restaurant Brands International (RBI), parent company of Burger King and Tim Hortons, got approval from 22 percent of shares voted, worth $7.4 billion. The results suggest that most independent shareholders support the proposal, according to a news release. Last month, a similar proposal at Louisville, Kentucky-based Yum! Brands, parent company of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, attracted support from 33 percent of shares voted, worth $7.1 billion.

The proposals asked the companies to develop environmental leadership commitments on plastic pollution and recycling by eliminating plastic straws and polystyrene foam and “setting high levels of recycled content and recovery goals” for packaging, ensuring that “recyclable packaging gets recycled on-site at restaurants."

Seattle-based Starbucks agreed to ban plastic straws by 2020 following an As You Sow proposal with 29 percent support. McDonald’s Corp. agreed to eliminate polystyrene foam packaging and enact on-site recycling following a 2017 vote with 32 percent support.

“We are seeing a stream of very high votes this year on plastic pollution affirming increasing investor concern about brand risk for discarded packaging that ends up fouling beaches and waterways and potentially harming marine life worldwide,” says As You Sow Senior Vice President Conrad MacKerron.

Igloo unveils biodegradable cooler

Katy, Texas-based Igloo has unveiled Recool, its first "eco-sensitive" cooler made from 100 percent biodegradable materials. Recool was created to “provide customers with an economical and environmentally conscious alternative to single-use foam coolers,” the company says in a news release announcing the product.

Pending patent, Recool is comprised of 100 percent biodegradable materials and is made in the U.S. from molded pulp. The cooler can retain ice for up to 12 hours and can hold water without leaking for up to five days.

Conair launches D Series dryers

With the launch of its D Series large desiccant dryers, with nominal throughputs from 600 to 5000 pounds per hour, Stamford, Connecticut-based Conair says it is simplifying its large dryer offering. Every model is built with desiccant wheel drying technology, a common touch-screen control and an expanded set of standard features.

“Every one of our new large D series dryers provides a far wider array of high-demand features as standard equipment, not options, and delivers them through a common control interface,” says A. J. Zambanini, drying products manager for Conair. “The result is a line of large dryers that are intuitively easy to understand and use, even without a significant amount of operator training.”

Zambanini continues, “With this introduction of large D Series dryers configured for central systems, our D Series line now extends from the Model D15 all the way through the Model D5000. We’ve done everything we can to provide continuity across the board so that buying, installing and using them will be very much the same no matter what size dryer we’re talking about.”

The largest dryers in the D Series feature the DC-C programmable electronic control, software and interface developed by Conair for drying applications. The standard DC-C Premium control system offers a color touch-screen user interface and a comprehensive set of features:

temperature setback;

dew point monitoring and control;

real-time trending;

seven-day auto-start/stop;

library of customizable resin drying recipes;

energy usage metering;

audible and visual alarms; and

Industry 4.0 enabled with remote control capability.

An energy saving Optimizer package adds a variable frequency blower drive, drying monitor probe, return air dew point monitor, volatile trap and process filter monitor to D Series dryers. These models get the DC-C Optimizer control, an augmented version of the Premium control, that uses the same interface and 7-inch color screen. “The Optimizer drying package is ideal for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) processors who need to manage high-throughput, high-temperature drying operations where its energy management features really pay off,” Zambanini says.

In the D Series, Conair says it has enhanced the desiccant wheel system, adding more precise rotational control to ensure optimal desiccant heating, cooling and drying performance.

GFL Environmental announces second acquisition within a week

GFL Environmental Inc., Ontario, has announced it will acquire the Soil Safe group of companies, based in Columbia, Maryland, in its second acquisition announcement within the past week. The transaction closed July 5, and financial details were not disclosed.

Patrick Dovigi, GFL’s founder and CEO, told Waste Today that the acquisition added new markets in California. Dovigi says the acquisition is in line with the company’s goal of replicating all its existing services across the continent.

Since its inception in 1989, Soil Safe has recycled more than 30 million tons of non-hazardous petroleum-contaminated soil for beneficial reuse outside of landfills.

"Soil Safe and its management team, led by Mark Smith, are recognized as industry leaders in contaminated soil recycling and the development of inert soil products for beneficial use in sustainable construction and green building applications. GFL is one of the largest processors of contaminated soils in Canada, and our acquisition of Soil Safe is in keeping with our strategy of replicating all of our service offerings in the US," Dovigi says. "Soil Safe's in-house expertise and recycled products complement and extend our existing capabilities as we build our infrastructure business to service our customers' needs across North America. We are excited to welcome Soil Safe and its employees to the GFL team."

At its facilities in New Jersey and Maryland, Soil Safe recycles contaminated soil into an engineered soil product meeting regulatory and end-market specifications that is used in a wide range of applications, including capping material, road base and structural and general fill. Soil Safe's California facility is the largest non-hazardous thermal treatment operation in the state from which it produces a clean recycled soil product for beneficial reuse in both brownfield and greenfield development applications.

The acquisition comes right at the heels of GFL’s acquisition of Toronto-based Canada Fibers Ltd., which the company announced July 5. That transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2019.

Canada Fibers has been an operator of material recovery facilities (MRFs) for the recovery and processing of recyclables for more than 28 years.

Dovigi told Waste Today that the close timing of the acquisitions was coincidental. The purchase of Canada Fibers depended mostly on the commodity market, which has hit record lows since China implemented its National Sword policy.

"We were fortunate to watch what happened with commodities over the past year. It's tougher to buy recycling businesses when commodity values are extremely high," Dovigi says. "On the commodity sales side, we believe it's very close to the bottom."

GFL made waves last year when it merged with the Raleigh, North Carolina-based Waste Industries. The merger, which more than doubled GFL's footprint of operations in North America, was expected to take place over the course of a year. Dovigi says integration is almost complete and has "been a very smooth process with very like-minded teams."

Acquisition activity is likely to continue the second half of the year as GFL pushes forward with a swath of new companies under its belt.

"I think we look at anything that makes sense in any of our existing offerings. It's a complete coincidence that these happened at the same time, but GFL being what it is, we're always looking at ways to be greener," Dovigi says. "I think we'll continue to look at opportunities to be a little bit different and a little bit greener."

Powering the screeners are two rotating vibratory motors that are designed to give a linear, straight-line conveyance action. The company says the unit propels the product forward with a positive conveyance action that is designed to offer better stratification than typical sloped, gravity and orbital screeners.

Steel shipments in May decline slightly from April

The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), Washington, reports that for the month of May, U.S. steel mills shipped about 8.14 million net tons, a 0.8 percent decrease from about 8.21 million net tons shipped this April. However, AISI reports that steel shipments for May increased 1.1 percent compared with about 8.06 million net tons shipped in May 2018.

Year-to-date shipments are at 40.5 million net tons, a 3 percent increase compared with 2018 shipments for the first five months of the year.

A comparison of May shipments to previous month April also indicates a for several steel products, including hot-rolled sheets (down 1 percent), hot-dipped galvanized sheets (down 2 percent) and cold-rolled sheets (down 4 percent).